James Franco Calls Australian Ban Of Sexually Explicit Gay Film “Embarrassing”

Oz The Great And Powerful star James Franco took to YouTube in support of his Interior. Leather Bar co-director Travis Mathews, whose drama I Want Your Love was banned last month from screening at multiple Australian film festivals by the Australian Classification Board. The unrated pic, about a gay man spending his last night in San Francisco before he moves back home to the Midwest, features a six-minute scene involving unsimulated sex between two actors. “This is such a disappointment to me and seems really silly”, said Franco, who tapped Mathews to collaborate on the Sundance entry Interior. Leather Bar after seeing I Want Your Love. “He was using sex in a very sophisticated way… [and] to keep it from films that want to explore it as human behavior is very shortsighted and I think very hypocritical. I don’t think we’d be having this conversation if he’d made a very violent film”. The film screened stateside at Frameline36, Outfest, and at the Inside Out Toronto LGBT Film Festival. Disney releases Oz The Great And Powerful on March 8. Watch Franco’s video here: